1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an equipment control unit for transmitting stored control information of an equipment to an external centralized control system.
2. Related Background Art
There is a strong desire for a copying apparatus having more additional and higher functions, resulting in a copying apparatus that is increasingly more complex in its construction and functions. Also, the number of copying apparatuses installed within one company is increasing. Thus, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,875, it is well known that in order to make the management of use and operation, the maintenance, and the appropriate and rapid repair for fault, the normal use conditions and the functional data of the copying apparatus are collected by a management department within the company or a special dealer for the centralized control.
Therefore, the copying apparatus was constituted such that a copy controller was also used to make the communication control with the external line, or a dedicated communication controller was provided to communicate with an external device for the centralized control, in place of the copy controller, by directly reading or writing the data from a storage portion for storing the data necessary for the copy control in the copy controller.
However, in an apparatus with the copy controller used to make the communication control, there was a problem that the communication speed with the external line might decrease due to an overhead of the copy controller. In an apparatus with the dedicated communication controller, there was a problem that due to a complex constitution thereof, it was difficult to cope with a plurality of communication methods in the communication partner.
Also, it is well known that by calling out a specific external device with, for example, a telephone number to make the communication through a communication line, the transmission or reception of data can be made to the external device installed at the management department and the like.
Such a copying apparatus controlled the copying operation while referring to a copy control storage which stored the information necessary for controlling the copying operation, and controlled the communication while referring to a communication control storage which stored the information necessary for controlling the communication.
However, in such a copying apparatus, if the storage portion failed for some reason, the copying operation or the communication operation might be interrupted, so that the user could not make the copy or the communication until the serviceman had repaired the failed copying apparatus.
Even with a copying apparatus having a plurality of storage portions in the controller, there was a problem that when a failure occurred within the controller, any storage portion might possibly not be accessed.
Also, there is provided a storage portion in the copying apparatus in which in order to prestore the normal functional data to be easily available and referred to by the service or maintenance person in charge at the failure or periodical maintenance service, the use or functional data of the copying apparatus can be stored by manual input, or automatic input with a controller of the copying apparatus.
However, in such copying apparatus, when a failure occurred in a controller having the storage portion for storing the information data associated with the copying apparatus, except in the storage portion, the controller integral with the storage portion was exchanged, wherein it was necessary for the serviceman to write a plurality of information associated with the copying apparatus on a memo sheet, then exchange the controller, and again manually input the whole information with reference to the memo sheet, which was a laborious and time-consuming task. Also, there was a problem that when the important information was input wrongly in inputting the information, the reliability of the copying apparatus might be significantly decreased.